Beyond Pottermore
by Torchwood007
Summary: Thirteen years of magic in both literature and film. When the series ended millions were disappointed, but when Pottermore was announced, a spark was rekindled. One million lucky beta testers got there before everyone else in August 2011, among them Taylor and Kate. Of course, they had no way of knowing that Pottermore was just a start to something much bigger, much more...magical.
1. Chapter 1

**Note from author: **I do not own Harry Potter, Pottermore, or anything else that may have come out of JK Rowling's head. The majority of the characters and story, however, _are_ mine.

* * *

Congratulations! You are magical.

The four words Taylor had been dying to see all week. Only one million Pottermore beta accounts were created, and she had finally gotten one! Her screen was filled with the image of an old book and a striped quill glowing with blue light, displaying her name on the page alongside the likes of Harry Potter, Oliver Wood, and the Weasleys. She had grown up with the series, reading and rereading those seven books, all but memorizing Harry's adventures at Hogwarts. When she turned eleven, three years after she had discovered the series, the girl had been seriously disappointed when no owl appeared at her bedroom window clutching a Hogwarts-embossed letter in its talons. And now she had the chance to get in on this website early, to help give feedback and help shape the website for the hordes of others who had similar experiences with the novels? It was as if that owl had arrived after all…just a few years late.

"Alright, I did it; I'm in!" the girl exclaimed, her red-tipped blonde hair fanning out behind her as she jumped up, pumping her fist in the air.

"Sweet, we both got in!" A redheaded girl about the same age as Taylor grinned, peeking over her friend's shoulder to get a look at the computer screen. "I wonder if they give you a wand and sort you and everything…how cool would that be? Think we'd end up in the same house?"

"Hm…not really sure," Taylor shrugged. "Wouldn't be a huge deal if we didn't, though, right? We might just have a friendly rivalry going."

"Right."

It was always nice to have someone to talk to about random, slightly geeky things like this, and even better when the person on the other side of the conversation had the same interests. Taylor and Kate had met early in high school, only a couple of days after their freshman year started, and had become fast friends. They both had similar interests in writing, art, and literature, both played video games a bit more than the average girl, and didn't seem to fit in as well as they'd hoped with any of the other students at their high school. It formed a sort of odd kinship between them as school went on and a couple of years had passed. Now juniors in high school, they had gotten used to sitting apart from the majority at lunch and discussing creative exploits, upcoming novels, or even the occasional bit of boy trouble. For the past couple of weeks their conversation had revolved almost exclusively around Pottermore, and now that they had both been chosen for beta testing that's where their conversation turned. For the next few hours the girls sat cross-legged on Kate's forest green bedspread, swapping guesses about what the site would be like once the beta accounts went live.

* * *

Meanwhile, an ocean away, a middle aged man with salt and pepper hair leaned away from his laptop, eying his handiwork. As he stretched out his shoulders, both letting out an audible pop as if irritated at the sudden flex, a young woman materialized behind him.

"Still playing with your pet project?" she asked, green eyes narrowed and arms crossed as she approached. "This is highly unlikely to produce any significant results. And your method…its accuracy is questionable at best."

"Yet it's better than doing nothing, and more effective than the old methods. Much less time consuming."

"So you're being lazy." The disapproval in her voice was palpable, hanging heavy in the dim café. "I cannot believe the school was left to the likes of you…"

"But it was, so I will experiment and do things my way for now, Serena," the man responded, his violet eyes fixing on her over the thin rims of his wire framed glasses. His gaze was suddenly sharper, more determined than it had been moments ago. In that instant, the hawklike woman realized what had convinced the council to entrust him with such responsibility. While unassuming, the man before her was cunning and inventive, unwilling to compromise his ideals to take the safe or popular route to appease the masses. While controversial, even she had to admit this plan had a certain air of inventiveness to it. Certainly nothing like it had ever been conceived before.

"…very well, Richard. For now I have to trust you know what it is you're doing. Muggle technology has never been used on such a scale—by us, anyway—and certainly not like this. Fusing magic and technology, then marketing it as a recreational website may earn you some bad press, at least at first. If it works, you may redeem yourself." As a strand of raven black hair fell forward into her eyes, almost automatically her hand reached up to tuck it behind her ear. "Show me what it is you're doing, and how you're doing it." Like many young witches and wizards from magical families, Serena Marks was less-than-familiar with the more advanced technologies. Part of her was still convinced that Google was created by a rogue wizard, not some tech-savvy Muggles. Richard Alban, on the other hand, was a bit of a techno-prodigy himself. Before he had discovered his magical abilities, cyberspace was his society. Creating and marketing a website under false pretenses was child's play. And the YouTube video, the scavenger hunts…simply icing on the cake.

"Oh, I think you'll like this. I've based it on a very popular book series that's even managed to gain quite a bit of notoriety in our culture." Richard rotated the laptop and tilted the screen so Serena could see properly, and the corners of his mouth turned up in a pleased smirk as she caught site of the title running across the top of the page. Yes, she had certainly heard of the series. More than once she had confiscated one of the novels from a student during class.

There, written across the top of the screen in metallic silver letters, was the word Pottermore.

* * *

**Note from author: **Thanks for reading! My updates are kind of sporadic, but it's been far too long since I posted something on this site and I wanted to get working on this piece again. By all means leave a review and let me know what you think! I hope you'll be hearing from me a bit more in the future. -T


	2. Chapter 2

"Did you get Sorted yet?"

"No, I just got my wand. Here, check it out!"

Another day, another lunch period, and again Taylor and Kate were sitting at a table at the fringes of the crowd. Kate had her laptop on the table, navigating web pages with one hand while munching on a sandwich with the other. It had been less than a week since the girls had gotten their welcome emails and almost a full month since they had signed up for the site in the first place, but Pottermore was once again a topic of conversation. Pushing her bangs out of her eyes, Taylor had leaned over to inspect the bright LCD screen where her friend had loaded her Pottermore profile page. The teen's bright blue eyes were fixed on one point of the screen, her lips curling into an amused smile as she turned back to her friend.

"Rowan and unicorn hair, huh?" Taylor asked with a chuckle. "Surprisingly swishy, twelve and a quarter inches. Not too bad. Let's see…what does that say about you…"

"Oh, don't open the Ollivander notes yet!" Kate interjected, hastily snatching the laptop from the table. "I haven't read them!"

"Alright, alright," the blonde sighed, holding up her hands in surrender. "I really should show you my wand, though. You'll never believe me if I just tell you."

The wicked grin on the blonde's face made Kate a little suspicious, but at the same time she wasn't worried enough to ignore her burning curiosity. When Taylor's profile page loaded, though, her jaw dropped. "Holly and phoenix feather?! You've got to be _kidding_ me!" The redhead pursed her lips and shot a glare at the other girl, who was laughing so hard she was barely staying in her chair. "That's not fair…if they haven't got snowy owls in Eeylops Owl Emporium they shouldn't have holly and phoenix feather wands!"

"Why, Kate, you're positively green with envy," Taylor coughed, wiping tears from her eyes. "It's really not a good color for you. The look on your face, though! Completely priceless."

"Yeah, yeah…I'm happy for you, though. That's really cool. When do you get Sorted?"

"Next chapter. I'll let you know how mine turns out, and you'd better fill me in on yours, too!"

"You know it."

* * *

"Any progress on the website, Professor Alban?" Serena Marks asked, entering the same coffee shop from the previous meeting. Richard Alban had been coming here for the last month or so, each time for at least three hours to check in on his pet project and evaluate the progress of the beta testers. Quite a few had already made rapid progress, and a few had even breezed through the entirety of book one already, but those were not the ones that interested him. It was the ones that had been meticulous in their search, found every detail in the chapters they had explored that drew his attention. Next to him on the table was a notebook and pen, the open page covered in his flowing script.

"Oh, yes, more than I had hoped," Alban replied, his eyes shining for a moment as if with hidden laughter. "A few of the betas seem to have found my Easter eggs."

"Easter eggs?"

"Oh…er…" The man's expression was sheepish as he attempted to come up with a sufficient explanation. "Easter is a Muggle religious holiday where, for entertainment, adults will often hide brightly colored plastic eggs filled with candy for their children to find. In a technical setting, an Easter egg is a hidden piece of information that takes some work to find. Not everyone initially knows it is there. The Easter eggs I've hidden are a bit different, drawn only to those with innate magical abilities. It's an infusion of magic and technology that will find us new students, Serena. It's so…harmonious, don't you think? Like the coexistence of Muggles and magical folk."

Despite her misgivings at the use of the word 'harmonious' to describe the existence of the wizarding community with the Muggle one, Serena nodded. "How many should we be preparing for? A hundred? Perhaps two?"

"Five hundred and sixty students. Considering this is out of one million potential students, that is far more than I had hoped for."

Serena's jaw dropped and for a moment she simply stared at the man in front of her in sheer disbelief. "T-that many…would put us…"

"At capacity for the first time in almost half a century," Alban finished, noting the woman's state of shock. "We would have to rotate them in, of course. We can't have more than 500 first years running about; imagine the chaos. Our current hundred and forty take precedence at the moment, but I'm thinking we should enroll fifty or so of my betas. Twelve or thirteen per house in the first year shouldn't be too bad, provided there's an even split. The Sorting Hat would make the decision, though, as always."

"Of course." Serena was almost at a loss for words. While she had enough confidence that Alban was a brilliant man, she had supposed this was beyond even his abilities. "But…who would you start with?"

"There are a few with exceptionally high scores, potential students who found not just a handful, but all of my Easter eggs. They would make the ideal test group, to see if the others even had a chance at Hogwarts. A bit older than our usual students, but they should do nicely."

"How much older?"

* * *

**Note from author:** Near the beginning I'll be updating this story a bit more frequently; I have the first ten or so pieces already written and they just need to be assembled. After that, though, patience is a virtue! Busy lives and all that. Thanks for reading (yes, I know the chapters are relatively short), and please leave a review on your way out.


	3. Chapter 3

_It was with great enthusiasm that the school bells finally tolled and, weary and relieved, Kate and Taylor stumbled from their classrooms. Midterms had been absolute murder, and they were both more than happy to put those school doors behind them for a long weekend. Besides, Halloween was just around the corner, and they needed to figure out what they were going as this year._

"_I think I might go the pirate route again," Taylor shrugged, fishing around in her pocket for her car keys as the girls walked out into the chill air of the parking lot. "Can't spare enough cash to get a new costume, and I haven't got the patience to make one."_

"_Yeah…same problem," Kate sighed. "It looks like my witch costume is going to make a comeback."_

"_At least we know they still fit—hey! Get off my car!" Taylor dropped the conversation immediately and broke into a dead sprint as she caught a glimpse of her vehicle. The usually pristine black Dodge Charger was covered from tip to trunk in what appeared to be birds, the most notable of which were two large tawny owls perched atop the roof. "You'll scratch the paint!" she pleaded, waving her arms at the birds like a madwoman. To her relief, most of the birds fled at her panicked display. The owls, however, were nonplussed. Instead of fleeing, they simply looked at her like she was absolutely barking mad, then fluttered their wings and settled in more comfortably now that the crowd was gone._

"_Hey, Taylor? I think they're holding something…"_

_Upon hearing Taylor's name, the larger of the two owls flapped its wings and flew over to the blonde, perching on her shoulder and offering one leg, attached to which was a rolled sheet of parchment sealed in red wax. The second just looked to Kate, meeting her gaze and looking down to its own leg. Either it was tired or lazy, because other than that it made no move toward the redhead. Nervously the girls reached out, untying the parchment from the birds' legs and looking at each other with complete confusion._You're kidding, right?_They were both thinking it._This isn't the UK, and this certainly isn't Harry Potter. Why in hell are there messenger owls waiting for us?_Slowly, they unrolled their parchment…_

"Kaitlyn Anne Fennimore, get your butt out of bed! You'll be late for school."

Kate sat up with a start, hands outstretched as if she really was unrolling a sheet of parchment. _So it…was just a dream, _she thought with a sigh, glancing at the Hogwarts crest next to her alarm clock. She had painted it there around the time the fourth book came out, and her unsteady child's hand had rendered the animals in a cartoon-like fashion. Since then her painting had improved, and while she had no doubts she could do a better rendering of the crest now, she left it as it originally had been painted. It was a bit sentimental, but she didn't care. Stretching, the redhead swung her legs out of bed and wandered to her closet, pulling out a black pullover hoodie, a white tee-shirt, and a pair of jeans to change into before rushing through her morning routine. At 7:30 she rushed out of the house, backpack slung over her shoulder, a mug of coffee in hand and a half eaten bagel with cream cheese clasped in her teeth. Less than a minute later Taylor pulled into the driveway in the very same car Kate had just dreamed about.

"Hey, you going to stand there and stare at me, or are you going to get in so we can get to school?" Taylor asked, leaning out of the window. "McPherson hates me already; I don't want to give her another petty excuse. If she hates me I want it to be on my terms, for some ridiculously flashy reason…not just because I was late. Again."

Kate just laughed and climbed into the passenger seat, eager for a chance to chat with her friend about her strange dream. The ride to school was long enough that she could get in some decent details, and if they hit a red light or two she might even have time to get Taylor's opinion on the matter. On some level, as they chatted, she began to wonder what would happen in a little over a year, when they were in college. Would they attend the same school? Could they keep having chats like this? The girl shook her head. Whether they did or not, she could at least enjoy it now.

* * *

_You've got mail!_

_Sent by: Pottermore_

_Pottermore?_ Taylor wondered, glancing again at the alert in the corner of her screen. _Shouldn't they be done sending me things? I though the welcome email would be the last I heard from them, short of a reminder email if I forget my password or something. Wonder what it is?_

Intense curiosity bubbling just below her calm exterior, the blonde put her finger to the laptop's touchpad. She moved the cursor over the alert and clicked, pulling up her email, selecting the newest one from Pottermore.

_Miss Grant,_

_We would like to thank you for your time as a Pottermore beta tester. It is because of you and the other 999,999 beta testers that we are able to find and iron out any bugs before we release it to the general public. Your patience in this matter is essential to the process. As a token of our appreciation, we would like to invite you and a select few other betas on an all expense paid trip to meet the creator of our site. You'll have the opportunity to voice suggestions directly to the person who makes our final creative decisions, and potentially to receive something from him to commemorate the occasion. Please RSVP at your earliest convenience to this email address._

_Thank you again for investing your time and providing us with your input._

_Sincerely yours,_

_The Pottermore Staff_

Taylor read the message twice a smile spreading rapidly across her face as she perused the travel details contained below the invitation. A free trip to the United Kingdom, huh? How could she refuse? _They aren't doing this for all of the betas, either…of course, that would get a bit expensive for a free website…so how many others are getting this? It's incredible! Oh…hang on…_ The girl glanced to her left, where Kate was also sitting at a computer. The difference between them was that the redhead actually appeared to be working on the assigned work, but Taylor nudged her with an elbow, nonetheless. "Kate. Check your email, would you? I want to see something."

Though the blonde's voice never rose above a whisper, the teacher on the other side of the room glanced around as if she had heard. Grimacing behind her computer screen, Taylor waited until the older woman turned away before glancing over at Kate again. While the girl did not look happy at being interrupted, there was an underlying curiosity on the girl's face that was similar to the blonde's own initial reaction. "Pottermore?" Kate muttered, her eyes flicking back and forth across the screen as she read a letter identical to the one Taylor had received. "Oh. My. Gosh. Oh my gosh! Omigosh!" She was taken aback by the letter, apparently even more so than Taylor had been. "Did you get one, too? Wait, of course you did, otherwise you wouldn't have had me check mine…we have to do this!"

Taylor just grinned and nodded. "Duh. I think this is one of those situations where I'm not even going to ask permission…I'm just going to _inform_ my parents that I'm leaving. They'll never let me go otherwise. 'Oh, hey, I'm going to London, by the way; see you in a week' sort of thing. Or, you know, whenever. The return ticket's at our discretion; might as well do a little sight-seeing while we're there! Who knows when we'll be back in Europe?"

"Well, that didn't take long, did it?" Richard said with a touch of surprise as two read receipts came back from the email he had just sent out on behalf of Pottermore. Minutes after that he received a pair of RSVPs and he couldn't help but laugh. Most of the beta testers he had chosen to be a part of the initial student trial were people from the United Kingdom, but he had picked a few from other countries as well, ones without operating magical schools. The thing that amused him the most was that, out of all of the beta testers he had just emailed, the RSVPs he had just received were from a pair of American teenagers. Considering what time it was for him, Richard reckoned the girls either had sent their responses from school or they were cutting class. Either way, it was obvious they had not even taken the time to consult with their parents or guardians on the matter. Good, that meant they were excited about the prospect of the trip. The only question now was…how would they react to the idea of studying magic, abroad, for seven years?

* * *

**Note from author:** I'm getting quite a few more hits on this story than I expected, so I just wanted to say thanks everyone for reading. I hope you're enjoying reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it. Whether you are or not, drop me a line and let me know what you think! Hard to improve if I don't get feedback, right? Thanks! -T


End file.
